Medieval dental care under Britain’s NHS

When I was growing up, my father was a teacher with a lousy salary and lousy benefits. The only good thing he had was his dental plan. It was a wonderful dental plan. Provided that we got our teeth cleaned and checked twice a year, it would pay the total cost of any dental work needed. (And, unsurprisingly given the careful maintenance our teeth got, we never needed fancy dental work.) One of the side benefits of the plan was that it got me in the habit of making regular visits to my dentist to keep my teeth up to par.

Going to England for my junior year abroad didn’t change that habit. About half way through the year, I decided that I absotively, posolutely needed to get my teeth cleaned, even if I had to pay out of pocket for the experience. While visiting a friend in Surrey, I managed to get an appointment with her dentist.

The tooth cleaning I got was, to this spoiled American, surprising. First, the dentist did it himself, as opposed to a technician. He explained that, since people didn’t get their teeth cleaned, technicians weren’t trained in the task. He had been trained at dental skill, he said, but his skills were rusty.

And rusty they were. If you’re like me, you’re used to a very thorough cleaning: gum measurements (to check for recession); a careful scraping of every surface; sonic assistance on the scraping, if need be; a gentle scrub with that polisher doo-hicky and some abrasive paste; and finally a good flossing. When I leave the dentist, my teeth are so clean you can eat off of them.

In England, all I got was a less than gentle scrub with that polisher doo-hicky and some abrasive paste. That was it. That was what past for dental hygiene. It became apparent to me why British teeth have been a long-standing American joke.

Thousands of Britons are having teeth needlessly pulled out, it was claimed yesterday.

The number of extractions has soared by 30 per cent in four years, according to figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats.

The party claims this demonstrates how much dental care has deteriorated under Labour, leaving thousands missing out on treatment that could save their teeth. More than 175,000 Britons had their teeth extracted under general anaesthetic in 2007/08, up 40,000 on the 2003/04 figure, a parliamentary answer revealed.

Figures show thousands of people are having their teeth pulled out needlessly when they could have been saved

Of these, 44,300 were aged between six and 18 and 14,200 were under five years old. LibDem health spokesman Norman Lamb said: ‘The extraordinary number of people needing their teeth extracted under general anaesthetic could well be the result of the appalling access to NHS dentistry.’

He pointed the finger at the general difficulty in finding a Health Service dentist since the Government introduced a ‘botched’ contract in April 2006.

Designed to increase access to NHS dentistry, the deal actually saw hundreds of dentists leave the NHS.

The number of patients seeing a dentist fell by 1.2million, leaving thousands without the treatment that could have stopped their teeth getting so bad that they had to be pulled out.

But dentists’ salaries have soared by 11 per cent since the change – to an average of more than £96,000.

Mr Lamb added: ‘The dental contract was supposedly designed to improve the situation, but the staggering rise in tooth extractions proves the massive failures of thisbotched initiative. The crisis in NHS dentistry is one of this Government’s most shameful legacies.’

Although the rate of extractions increased throughout the four-year period following April 2003, it gathered pace after the new contract for NHS dentists was introduced.

As I read it, aside from Britain’s generally laughable dental standards, a huge government error has doomed millions of Britain’s to medieval care. That’s what happens when you have one provider, and the provider screws up. There are no alternatives. There is no marketplace to adapt and provide. Everything simply collapses.

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This explains why the Americans who occasionally show up in the British crime mysteries I like to read are invariably described as having “preternaturally straight” and “blindingly white” teeth.

socratease

“Let’s look at a picture book – the Big Book of British Smiles.”

Ellen

I’m a bit of a royalty watcher, and I was always struck by the late Queen Mum’s terrible teeth. God knows she had hot and cold running money, and I always wondered why she didn’t fix her teeth. Several of my international students have told me that straight white teeth identify a tourist as an American before they even speak.

There’s plenty of material to run a counter-propaganda and (advertisement) campaign here in America. But the people with the money are usually Leftist freaks and propagandists and agent provocateurs.

That’s sad. And they got the money from? From Exploiting the rest of the people in America, that’s how. After all, you can be assured that when Leftists talk about big businesses exploiting the poor, the Left are in reality talking about themselves.

SADIE

After reading about the poor dental care, I understand why the Brits always say keep a stiff upper lip – the need to hide poorly kept teeth or none at all.

I run a dental clinic for Brits in Slovakia through http://www.dentalholiday.co.uk and can say that the amount of enquiries to our clinic doubles each month. The situation in the UK with NHS is terrible!

SADIE

It must be worse than terrible, if one has to fly 1200 km/800 miles to get their teeth cleaned.

memnarch

a very good article, i’m British and I’m pretty thankful that i still have an NHS dentist (i live in an area with 4 or 5 NHS dental surgeries still running, even after the latest government screw-up, so most people here are accounted for)
You did miss one important thing out however, in the UK we have private practice dentists and doctors as elsewhere, it’s not ONLY the governments job, if you pay for the insurance (or you can afford to pay the cost out of hand) then you can change your provider to a private one and generally receive better care and given the treatment of the NHS lately by the government this has become far more of a ‘live’ option for people.
The main reason for people being left without a provider is that they cannot afford to go private (i know if i got booted from my dentist i certainly couldn’t afford it) and the lack of dental plans at businesses stemming from the ability of the NHS (until now it seems) to provide good coverage.

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